Colin Smith
of the Croydon Aircraft Company has built a replica of
Pither's aircraft to put the 1910 design to a practical test. Working
drawings were able to be produced from usefully detailed contemporary
newspaper reports and photographs, although no one knows what adjustments
Pither later made at his beach test-site.
Bill Sutherland of Waikaka built a look-alike Pither V-4 engine, and the engine-propeller
combination was set to the power output specified by Pither (250lb or 113kg)
to test whether that was sufficient to put the craft in the air. The only design
concessions were added for safety reasons and made no difference to performance.
These, plus the heavier engine, made the replica 160lbs (77kg) heavier than
Pither's craft.

The
beach where Pither tested his plane is accessed from Bay Road.
In 1910 it was known as "Riverton Beach" because this was where the
coach road between Invercargill and Riverton ran along the beach.
Today it would be referred to as just the western end of Oreti Beach.
Here Pither set up camp for a week in mid-winter 1910, finding a gap
in the wintry weather one afternoon to fully test his plane.

THE PITHER FAMILY

Born in Reigate, Surrey, in 1871, Pither was the second
eldest of 12 children of John and Lydia Pither, who emigrated to
Canterbury on the Crusader in 1875.
Pither and his Australian wife Sarah Hahir had no children, but there are many descendants in other lines.
Information collected for this project, including
photos and family legends, is being shared with far-flung branches
of the family.

Known
in his day for an interest in the manufacture of "anything weird
and mechanical", Pither had shown technical and athletic abilities
since his Canterbury childhood.
His Bleriot-style monoplane has features that indicate
he was aware of contemporary international developments and the principles
of flight, besides some innovative ideas of his own.
He drew on his background as a professional cyclist and
cycle manufacturer to build the structure of his plane from steel
cycle tubing, thus tackling one of the problems of his day: how to
achieve a plane light enough to be lifted by the engine power then
available.
Pither ran a Kelvin Street engineering business in Invercargill
about 1906-1910, building petrol driven engines for boats and agricultural
machinery. He came south driving a car he built himself in 1902
in Christchurch.
The close resemblance of both Pither's engine and airframe
designs to the contemporary JAP engine and to the English firm's experimental
1910 plane (now in the Science Museum in London) is a mystery. See
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/flight/flight/jap.asp

The Croydon Project

The project's major aim was to honour this very inventive man for his engineering
achievements in their own terms.

At this point no one can prove Pither flew – unless they can find
reliable eyewitnesses who made a contemporary record of the flight (with
photos please.) No one authorised to speak for the Croydon Aircraft Company
project has made, or will make, such a claim.

But the successful flight of the replica, showing that it is both flyable
and controllable, greatly increases the probability that Pither flew,
especially when placed alongside Pither's own description of his experience.

The supposed “Pither” engine currently in MOTAT, Auckland , has detracted
from an assessment of Pither's abilities as an engineer. However it is highly
unlikely to be a Pither engine, but rather an engine that included some left-over
Pither parts from the foundry. It is certainly not the engine in the contemporary
photographs of Pither's plane, nor does it match the quality of his workmanship.

The MOTAT engine was almost certainly built by another Invercargill aviation
experimenter, Jimmy Paskell, a contractor and scrap-metal merchant. This engine
was retrieved from a site in Otatara, close to the Paskell property, and Paskell's
son has described disposing of this engine from his father's aircraft down
a well there. (He also disposed of a metal-sheathed propeller of “old-fashioned
design”,
which has not been recovered.)The area was later quarried for gravel, apparently
bringing the engine back to the surface.

Pither critics have cited the inadequacies of this engine, discounting the
possibility that it could operate for long enough to sustain flight. This may
well be so, but is irrelevant to a consideration of Pither's achievements.

Pither flies

At 7.30am on Saturday 18 February, Croydon Aircraft Company's Pither replica
1910 monoplane moved for the first time under its own power out onto the Mandeville
airfield.

The Croydon team had anticipated lengthy cautious taxiing trials might be
necessary, but pilot Jerry Chisum quickly established the craft was stable,
and on only the second run, inched it into the air over a distance of about
100 metres.

Take-off speed measured from the chase car was 70km.

On successive runs he took the monoplane slightly higher, and satisfied himself
it was fully controllable.

Its performance exceeded his expectations, given its minimal tail surfaces,
he said.

“It wants to fly.”

However there is no historical reason for putting it to any greater test,
and no intention of doing so. The replica will become part of the Croydon
Aviation Heritage Trust's future museum collection.

The proposed
Trust museum will present the southern men who dreamed of flying
and their aircraft designs. Some other known early experimenters (pre-1915)
were Francis Potter (Kelso), Ben Edginton (Invercargill) J.H. Gill
(Dunedin) Simon McDonald (Gore and Invercargill) and Jimmy Paskell
(Invercargill). Will Scotland's 38 mile flight from Invercargill to
Gore in February 1914 was the first cross-country flight in New Zealand.
Information on these men and any other experimenters is welcome.

The problem with Pither's claim to flight

Pither's
claim to have flown on Oreti Beach on 5 July 1910 relies almost
entirely on his own description of the experience, as given to journalists.

Reminiscences collected years suggesting at least one more ambitious flight has now been discounted.
Like many technologically inventive minds, Pither may have lacked
the business skills and finances to exploit his ideas, and he probably
over-extended his resources in his investment in the plane.
He is not known to have been involved in any further aviation
experimentation, and died in Victoria in 1934 without again laying
claim to be the first to fly in New Zealand.
The extent of his achievement is therefore still open to question.

Can you provide more information?

The Croydon team would welcome information
on:

Pither's cycling career in New Zealand or Australia

Unfortunately the club he raced for in Christchurch
lost its archives to fire

His early 1902 single-cylinder car

No photo has so far been found

His business activities in Melbourne, Christchurch and Invercargill

His whereabouts in Australia 1911-21

Any surviving Pither marine or agricultural
engines -- his "Peerless" brand is distinctive...

Pither Aero Engine

Does anyone know the present whereabouts of a 1909 JAP
engine believed to have been imported by Pither, last heard of at
Charles Liddell's private museum in Papakura in 1981?

They emigrated to Canterbury
as on the Crusader in 1878, when Bert was seven.

Eventually they had a family of 12, and there are numerous descendants. Family names include
Mills, McNichol and Fraser.

An Internet search on the name shows the Pither family continues to produce achievers, especially
athletes.

Bert's brother Laurence became a building contractor in Katoomba, and there are Australian
descendants, though no connection has yet been traced to Air Commodore
A.G. Pither, RAAF, who was responsible for Australian radar defence
during World War 2.

Brothers Len and Laurence were also good cyclists. Someone in the family may have the photo
above of Bert on his bike, which was still in existence in the 1950s.

Bert married Sarah Hahir in Melbourne in 1895. They are known to have been in Horsham, http://www.horshamvic.com.au/index.php?id=horsham
a small town just outside Melbourne, in 1921, where Pither died in
1934 and his wife in 1958. Any information about their lives in Horsham
is welcome.